Conservatives on IR35 - "existing legislation must be reviewed"

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Conservatives on IR35 - "existing legislation must be reviewed"

Posted Jun 30, 2009

Following on from our recent article which looked at the Conservatives' stance on IR35, a leading contractor site has re-enforced our understanding that a future Tory Government would review the IR35 legislation with a view to amending or replacing it.

Shadow Corporate Governance Minister Jonathan Djanogly told Contractor Calculator:

"We fully understand that self-employed people have concerns that they are being pulled into the employment sphere by IR35, and that existing legislation must be reviewed."

"We have to ask whether we should simply scrap IR35 and return to pre-2000 conditions, or whether we should amend the legislation. We are aware that there will be unintended consequences if IR35 is simply scrapped, with nothing to replace it."

Djanogly, who has had real small business experience from running his own law firm also said that they way the Government interacts with business needs to be changed:

"The regulatory atmosphere for business has become totally over the top," he says. "And it's not just over-regulation, but the very process by which government consults with business."

He insists that a new Conservative government would continue its series of reviews and consider not just IR35, but other regulatory burdens and legislation impacting contractors and freelancers.

Such reviews, says Djanogly, would include the income shifting proposals, and the Agency Workers Directive, which could cause real harm if contractors are included within the scope of the legislation.

You can read the full interview on Contractor Calculator.

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